This mod recreates scenes and concepts from known information of the beta version of Cave Story to create a full experience, along with a handful of original things.
There are also a lot of bugs, glitches, and purposeful bad design in some areas to try and replicate a somewhat unfinished game, even though this is finished and has an ending...
Well put-together mod that is very faithful, for better or for worse, with some original elements that don't feel too out of place in the context of the beta. I had already played this but for those who haven't here on the forums I can't recommend it enough honestly, while it has its flaws (it's based on the beta, what do you expect) it's a great experience that feels almost like playing Cave Story for the first time again, but from a different universe. Vozaxhi I suggest adding a few more screenshots to the original post so more people from the forums will play because it's a really well put together mod that deserves the attention
I've already said most of this in Discord, but I'm going to put it here so everyone on the interweb can see it (So if you read this on that platform, it's almost all the same).
Regardless of the repeated review, it was a fun mod, reminiscent of when I first played Cave Story.
There are also a lot of bugs, glitches, and purposeful bad design in some areas to try and replicate a somewhat unfinished game, even though this is finished and has an ending...
Ah, yes. The old CYA statement. Dang. Now I can't complain about TSC bugs.
Anyways, here's the review:
I've never seen the beta videos, so I have no frame of reference for "beta accuracy". It's just another CS mod to me. I made it to the first save point or around there when I realized that as typical with most videogames, this one was well out of my skill range, so I resorted to my good friend HXD and started screwing with the save file. This isn't unusual for how I like to play my videogames. I played HL1 and HL2 with godmode on out of the gate, along with pretty much every other videogame I can think of (not puzzle games, though. those are within my skillset). I'm the type of person who reads the wikipedia plot of a movie before going to see it. I don't care. Hate me. The only things I modified were player's HP, Ammo, and money, so yes, I cheated, but I didn't skip anything. Even with all these "handicaps", it still probably took me longer to beat this than most of you could.
For the most part, the mod is well put together. I only noticed a few minor TSC hiccups here and there, but they were mostly unimportant. For example when the salesman sells you the "missile launcher deluxe" in Central, there is no confirmation text that you bought it, so I accidentally bought 2. I had many reminiscent thoughts when playing this mod back to my initial playthrough of Cave Story, like when I got stuck in Grasstown (original CS) for quite some time trying to find where the gum base was, not knowing I had to talk to Kazuma a second time to get the key. Since this beta remake is less linear than the original CS, this happened much more frequently because those story advancing elements could be anywhere, not just somewhere else in the same stage. This happened when I was trying to find the Sand Zone. I travelled all over the place before I finally whipped out Booster's lab and found that the entrance was inside one of the digging levels.
Don't worry, I also had good reminiscent thoughts too, like eagerly pressing through the levels so I could see how the story develops.
Speaking of story, I spent probably waaay longer than I should have trying to figure out what steps I needed to take to get the best ending. Just like with original CS, I progressed as I thought I should up to almost the end of the mod before I realized I was no longer on track for the best ending, so with a sigh of disappointment, I restarted the game over. From scratch.
In hindsight though, I probably shouldn't have done this, because the sub-optimal credits list a tool that you need for the best ending, and knowing what this was would have helped me in my subsequent search. I knew where I had to go, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. There was a door in one of the water levels that required you to swim up in order to reach it. Since I didn't know about the goggles, I figured you needed Froggy to get to the door, but all exits for him were blocked, so I beat my head against this wall for a disappointingly long time.
Even the second time, I thought I missed it, so I whipped out Booster's Lab again and started picking through stage transitions and flag jumps until I found what I needed, A chest containing goggles that appears in the first water-logged cave that is only there between when you climb up the outer wall and sleep in the bed. I was distracted by several other red herrings, like several unused chest events that also give you the goggles and an unused shopkeeper item.
Of course I gave that one thing the tangerine. I'm still not sure what it is, but it seems to like tangerines. *
From a technical standpoint, this mod is equally impressive. It contains custom sounds, movement, weapons, items, enemies, and bosses, whose behavior, no doubt was painstakingly replicated from the scraps of beta footage. (once again, I haven't seen the beta footage, so I have no idea how close to the mark they are.)
All of these seem to be fairly robust and are fun to interact with, making the game a fun experience overall.
Props to you (and all who participated) for taking one of the biggest Cave Story modding "Memes" and kicking it straight into next Thursday. There is now a complete and feature-filled beta remake for content enjoyers to sink their teeth into.
Oh, okay. Is that how the Beta was really meant to function? I haven't seen too much of the footage. Sounds pretty difficult, I think I'll just cheat my way through to experience the mod
Given how there was a currency system in the beta, I would be absolutely surprised if Pixel didn't make it so you can buy ammo. Then again, even if that wasn't the case, I doubt anyone would object to people who take that liberty to make it happen.
Oh, okay. Is that how the Beta was really meant to function? I haven't seen too much of the footage. Sounds pretty difficult, I think I'll just cheat my way through to experience the mod
It seems strongly implied that that's how it was in the beta, in fact its pretty to get softlocked in the early game if you aren't careful with your ammo...
though it's really not too bad to play legit I'd say especially after you get past the first caves sections, only cheat (or look up the walkthrough) if you get stuck
This was really fun to play through! It does take a little while for the mod to get good, so playing it does require some patience (and a tolerance for obtuse design.)
What I really liked about this was that most of it felt very plausible. There's a fair bit of stuff here that could pass as legitimate beta content. The only part that I found kinda out of place was the area before the final boss called "Sky High." But that area was cool enough that I didn't really mind.
I don't know why I decided to binge this entire mod in one day, I've got a date today so it wasn't really a smart idea of me. But it's a break day so why the hell not.
What I'm assuming is the original song in here is honestly great, well done. The writing in the parts that aren't trying to resemble / remake the beta or progress the plot is some of the best stuff, it's endearing and adds alot of character to what, honestly, is one of the most frustrating mazes to traverse through.
The level design alone makes me wish I didn't play this, and the worst part is that one of the most egregious spots, Sand Zone , is one of the areas that, from what I can tell, is the most accurate to how it was in the beta.Ascend was surprisingly fun compared to what I expected going into it. Sky High was a bit underwhelming in comparison.
I'm going to assume I got the worst ending, and judging by the credits there seems to have been some sort of fetch quest involved? I'm not sure, but there's a TON of content I never saw, and that extra content wasn't choreographed very well to to the player other than a "Don't forget me!" and "Hey did we forget someone?" with no chance to go back past that point. It feels very tongue in cheek, like the ending routes in the base game but designed more like a "Fuck you, go through hours of mazes again and do it right". It's headache inducing. There's so many dead-ends everywhere that don't really lead the player back to where they need to be. I know I can't expect too much from something that's trying to be accurate to the beta but man, it feels like a sattire of how bad the beta's design was. I know Pixel was very capable of intentional design by this point judging by how Ikachan is structured.
I think it's pretty fair to call this a very solid recreation of the beta for the most part, and I think it does a great job at hitting the nail on the head answering 'Why would you ever want to play an unfinished version of a title that spent years in the oven for a damn good reason'.
The best parts here are the parts that are original, they're very soulful in comparison. It's just a horrible slog to go through just as a result of the end-goal of the mod.
I cried a little at the end when the doctor said 'That was the end of our Cave Story. Beta.' and then Su shattered into a million pieces.
Download:
